Netherlands
On The Way to Odessa: The Road Is Life
The road caught us, flexible and free like a cat. Its yellow, silently smiling eyes followed us. Sooner than I realized, we were guided by the flow of the events.
Again and again the magic of things revealed itself in any rides and in the simple beauty of our encounters. Angels and savers, monks and royals arrived to us. Speaking without language, skipping the barriers of words and indifference. The embarrassment of the hugs at the end of each ride and the laughs of the non-understood are an exercise of mimic: training for gesture and instinct.
Un-pre-dic-ta-ble. The road is life and it is a teacher.
We Never Shared Names
It costs 29 euro to take the train from Heerlen to Amsterdam, which seems reasonable, especially since I want to support the efficient, comfortable and comprehensive Dutch mass transit system.
But it misses the point - the point which is about radical sharing. And about storytelling. And about dropping social barriers. And about taking useful risks. And about modeling behaviors for a more sustainable future.
I am talking about hitchhiking.
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